Shallott
by Moonphase
Summary: AU- Fai is trapped in a tall tower, too afraid to leave lest the curse he is under kills him. However, one day he sees a handsome stranger fighting to save the lives of others...will this encourage Fai to be brave enough to step out of the tower?


Once upon a time, there was a small and humble village that stood a few miles outside of the fabled castle of Camelot. The people of this village were ordinary peasants and wholly uninteresting, save for one small part of their village culture; a little way from them was a lake, and in this lake was a tiny island, and on this tiny island stood a tall but crumbling tower. No one knew who built the tower, but there were rumours that an evil witch created it many years ago to hide away two cursed twins. According to the legend, the twins were Changelings, fairy children who had been left in the hands of humans. Changelings were feared and reviled, because they were always at the root of calamity. Changelings in the village would cause crops to fail, for bad weather to plague the people, for illness to spread and for war to start up.

Unsurprisingly then everyone was too afraid to go near the tower, even though most believed that it was only make-believe. Tales of the blonde waifs within it spread and circulated amongst them anyway, keeping them entertained with the tale during cold winter nights when they had nothing better to do or talk about.

Little did they know how much truth was in their strange fiction...

Inside the tower stood a young beautiful man that was barely in his early twenties. A melancholy creature, everyday he would sit on an uncomfortable stool all day long looking into a magical mirror that stood on his wall, which revealed to him the outside world.

Currently Fai, for that was what the boy named himself, was looking at the moon and the mysterious smoky mist that lingered around it. As he watched, he was also painting what he saw on a large canvas; the picture being startingly realistic.

In fact all over the small room were paintings; paintings on the walls, on canvases, on bits of pottery and even on the rafters of the roof above him.

Fai and his twin had been here since they had first remembered, though Fai was alone now. He looked mournfully at the empty stool beside his own.

He still remembered all those years ago when he, tearful and frightened, had begged his brother, whose real name was Fai, to not go outside, that they were the Cursed Ones, and that leaving the tower meant certain death. However, his brother had yelled 'I'm half sick of shadows! We are always left in the dark! What crime did we commit? Why are we cursed?' Fai had gripped his brother's wrist in a desperate and maddened manner, 'we can't even look at the outside world with our own eyes, we can only see what the mirror allows us to see. What kind of life is that? We can be free, come with me, Yuui!'

But Yuui (for that was our protagonists real name) had been too afraid and so instead watched through his magic mirror as his brother left the tower and attempted to cross the lake. But before he had even gotten to the end, the blood in his young veins froze, and Yuui watched, horrified and powerless as his twin died.

The body and the boat had sunk into the bottom of the lake and after that day Yuui took on the name of his brother, even though it seemed cruel, as Fai was still stuck in the living in the tower which was exactly what the deceased twin would never have wanted.

Soon winter came, turning the land to snow and ice, making the carnivores of the forests cruel and bold with a need for food. The people began to stay indoors, surviving off what they had harvested during the summer and looking forward to the one highlight of the winter, which was the winter celebrations, when they celebrated the winter solstice by giving each other gifts, and holding holly and mistletoe above each other in order to receive a kiss.

Fai watched it all in his mirror, hating the cold and hating the winter, for he was ill, and alone, and bored with nothing to see but the ink black sky and the snow quilted ground. The festivities were mostly hidden from him as he could not see into their homes; and even if he had been able to watch, he wouldn't want to, as it would have only reminded him of his own dark loneliness.

However, one night as he was cursing his boredom, something unusual happened.

Fai saw a great serpent, a giant black oily looking thing, flying towards the village, it let out a mighty screech that had the villagers running out of their houses terrified.

The thing breathed a mighty orange fire, lighting up the land and burning the homes to the ground.

Fai gasped, tears running down his face. Though the villagers did not know him, he had been watching them all his life; he could not believe this was happening!

"No!" He cried, grabbing each side of the mirror and rattling it impotently, "no please, someone has to do something, has to save them!"

As if some benevolent god or goddess had looked down upon him and had decided to answer his plea, Fai watched with an open mouth as a black steed carrying a black-armoured knight rode onto the scene.

The knight, a valiant man, began to battle with the serpent, using his small but strong shield to fend off the dragon's lethal fire breath. Closer and closer the knight got to the beast, as it twisted and turned, trying to inch away from the Knight and entrap him within its coils.

Before long, it seemed that the dragon had one; it used its tails to whip the horse, breaking its leg and bring it to the ground. Whilst falling, the Knight had drooped is javelin, the weapon he had been aiming at the dragons heart, and it spun far out of his reach.

He lunged for it, but the dragon was too fast, and snapped one of the man's legs in its jaws, flinging him up and preparing to swallow him whole when, suddenly, the Knight bought out a sword and plunged it into the dragons throat, the movement so fluid that it seemed as if the knight had planned to do as he did from the start.

The creature hissed in agony, fire bursting out of its throat where the wound had been made, and throwing the knight back in the process.

It fell to the floor, its red eyes rolling into the back of its skull. It slowly stopped moving, then like all dragons that died, turned in to black smoke and dissipated into the ether.

Fai sat back, breathing heavily. Never had he seen such things!

He touched the mirror gently where it revealed the knight, who was now being surrounded by grateful villagers.

"He must be a knight from the castle," said Fai, recalling the sight of Camelot his mirror sometimes showed him.

After making orders for the fires to be put out using the water from the lake Fai's island was in, the knight pulled off his helmet.

Fai gulped. He had never seen such a beautiful man. The knight's eyes were a deep red, his hair as black as coals, and his face was that of a man with a noble nature, but who was also factual, brash and who took no nonsense.

The complete opposite of Fai.

Looking at the man, Fai felt strange, part of him was exhilarated and another part felt deeply ashamed of himself. Even when his brother had left the tower, his nature had seemed more defiant and desperate, this man was truly brave. He would not stay in a tower out of fear; he would leave with a proud heart into certain death because a man like him would never live a life in half shadows.

The days went by and villagers slowly began to fix their town once more. The Knight returned twice more, but then Fai did not see him again.

He watched the mirror desperately, praying to see the knight, but it seemed that now there was no emergency, and winter was still deeply set into the land, that the knight would not come again.

'_Will he return in the spring_?' wondered Fai, '_can I wait until then? What if I do wait and he never returns_? _Will I just sit and wait forever more?'_ Fai stood up suddenly, frustrated tears falling from his eyes, "**NO**! I **always** wait!" he cried out loud, "I always wait and nothing ever happens except for that I lose **more**! More time, more love and more of myself!"

It was then that Fai made his decision.

"I'm practically dead anyway," he whispered looking around him, at all the paintings, at the empty stools, at the walls he knew so well, "I'm not living at all. So I may as well go meet my death properly, because maybe, maybe I can see him before I die."

Picking up his stool, Fai smashed it into the mirror, the glass shattering into a thousand pieces and littering the floor, the room reflected a thousand times, it's magic now gone.

Fai didn't feel sorry for what he had done. Instead he picked up a single painting, a small, seemingly inconsequential one and stepped, for the first time in his life, out of the door, down the long, twirling stairs and out of the front door.

Outside it was dark and the moon shone down upon him.

He felt the wind. It was so cold, almost spiteful, as if he was being slapped by it. But he didn't care, it was the first time he had ever felt it.

Looking down at his bare feet, he wriggled his toes in the snow. He hadn't known snow was wet, he had always imagined it would feel more fluffy and soft.

Knowing he only had a little bit of time, he walked over to where one last boat stood in the water, a rope tied to a peg embedded in the ground.

With a gulp Fai stepped into the boat, feeling sick with anxiety as it rocked slightly.

'_Will I even make it to the shore?'_ he wondered, before frowning with determination, _'if not, at least I shall join my twin in whatever afterlife may be waiting for me.'_

He undid the rope from the peg and set the boat free, allowing it to drift towards the land. As he did, he could feel himself shaking with the cold. He began to feel tired, and tried to keep himself awake by delighting in the puffs of smoke his breath could make.

"I'm like a dragon," he whispered, his voice shaking because he was shivering so much, "the red-eyed knight killed me, just like he did the dragon, only...he didn't know he was the cause of my death."

* * *

The next morning was decidedly frosty.

The black knight, known as Kurogane, marched angrily to the village. He had never taken much of an interest in the village before, but when the dragon had made its way there, he had become acquainted with the people and wanted to make sure that it would remain safe. It seemed strangely supernatural, especially with its history of harbouring witches and sages.

He tried to control his horse, his faithful steed Ginyru had been injured when they were in battle with the dragon, and was resting in the royal stables. Instead Kurogane was stuck with a stupid prancing, chubby white horse given the idiotic name 'Mokona.' It belonged to the Lady Sakura, who swore it was a magical horse, and so Kurogane had been made to act as if it were a great honour to ride the stupid thing; only it wasn't, it was unbefitting to his role of a warrior and frankly embarrassing.

Suddenly, Mokona, as if deciding to be _particularly_ stupid that morning, lurched to the left and began to run at full speed.

"No! NO!" screamed Kurogane, pulling at the reigns, "stop! Damn IT!"

They were heading towards a vast lake, and Kurogane was wondering if Mokona was going to commit suicide and homicide at the same time by ploughing them both into the water, when Mokona skidded to a halt, stopping right by the edge of the water.

Kurogane let out a shaky breath and slid off the panting horse, nearly collapsing.

"YOU STUPID-!" His rant was cut off when he noticed the boat in the water. He went towards it, something telling him he needed to check it out, and he saw the holly and mistletoe growing above it in copious amounts.

Looking back into the boat, he saw the frozen body of the most beautiful creature his eyes had ever bestowed. The boy's lips were blue, and his skin a deathly pale, but his hair was radiant like the sun and his skin looked soft, and his lips full.

Kurogane was not a romantic man. He was interested in keeping himself and the ones he loved safe, fighting and winning and living the life of an honourable warrior. He had never hoped or even cared about marriage or love. But looking at the body of the boy, his heart almost broke, because he did not know who this boy was or why he died; he would never have the opportunity to know this person, and they would never know him.

In the boys hands was a small picture. Plucking it from his frozen grip, Kurogane saw that it was a picture of the boy when he was young, and what looked like his reflection.

"Who are you?" Kurogane whispered, climbing into the shallow reeds, not caring about the thing ice he had smashed into, or how cold it was in the lake. He just wanted to take a closer look at the man.

He focused on the boy's face. He didn't look dead exactly, just very cold and asleep.

Kurogane remembered the mistletoe hanging above the boat and bit his lip.

He couldn't kiss the boy, surely that would be disrespectful?

And all those old stories about magic kisses raising the dead were nonsense.

But then, only that morning Kurogane had believed that Lady Sakura's belief of a magic horse was stupid, yet Mokona must have sensed this boy.

Deciding to take the risk, and feeling strangely light headed, Kurogane bent over the boat and pressed his lips onto the boy's.

Fai frowned slightly. He had remembered feeling so cold before, but now he could feel the blood in his veins sluggishly begging to move again. The warmth began to return to his fingers and toes so that he was able to wriggle them.

Then more of his senses began to return, though he hadn't noticed when or how long they had been gone. He could hear the birds ('_it must be morning'_ he thought,) and light was shining through his eyelids. He could even feel breath just above his own mouth...

Blue eyes snapped open and Kurogane jumped back in shock.

Fai slowly sat up, still feeling cold and stiff, but turning to stare of Kurogane.

The knight stared back.

"Who are you?" asked Fai, his heart hurting in his chest for it was pounding so hard.

The knight straightened himself up and attempted to look as dignified as one could standing in icy water.

"I am Kurogane of Camelot," he responded stiffly, "you were in the boat frozen stiff and I thought you were dead. You-you can come home with me if you like...to recuperate."

He looked at the beautiful blonde boy; certain he would be laughed at and sneered away_. 'I'm such an awkward fool,'_ he berated himself_, 'I shall forever stick to hunting and killing things after this, no more chasing after pretty men...'_

However, when he was brave enough to look, he saw that the blond was looking at him gratefully, tears in his eyes.

The boy nodded.

"Please," said Fai, his words barely coherent, "you have no idea what I've been through...of the shadows...and loneliness...and death...I thought I would die but somehow you've saved me...please...my name is...is Fai...Fai Yui and I would like to come home with you."

Kurogane nodded dumbly and helped the ill boy onto Mokona ready to go home.

As they rode together back to Camelot, both of them knew, deep in their hearts, that they were going to be happy ever after.

* * *

**A.N- This is based off a Victorian poem called 'The Lady of Shallott'. I would advise you to read it, and if long poems aren't your thing (or even if they are) go check out the song based on the poem, called 'Shallot' by a singer called Emilie Autumn. They're both pretty cool, but much sadder than what I wrote.**

**This fanfiction was written for a competition on DeviantArt. It came dead last and was totally ignored ;_;**

**But screw 'em, I like this story.**

**I have a lot of work on at the moment but, if anyone likes this story (on this site, at least *weeps pathetically*) and feels like it would make a good multi chapter, let me know, because I wouldn't be against it.**

**In any case, I hope ya'll enjoyed it, especially all the FaiKuro fans whose hearts I broke with my other one shot 'The Mulberry Tree.'**

**Toodles :)**


End file.
